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Remember: Visits from the milkman

By LEIGH ZALESKI Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
10/07/2010 04:18:45 PM EDT

A man drives a Harley-Davidson attached to a York Sanitary Milk Co. Purity Ice Cream cart in this York County Heritage Trust photograph. Home milk delivery started in 1942 and tapered off in the 60s. (SUBMITTED)

When Palmer Thompson got a job as a milkman in 1962, one of the first things he had to do was learn how to drive a truck standing up.

Drivers removed the front seat because it was easier to get to the back of the truck where the milk was stored, which reduced delivery time.

"I don't know how I drove," he said, trying to remember by demonstrating how he positioned his feet and held the wheel.

Thompson, 70, of Stewartstown lived in Anaheim, Calif., at the time after finishing his service with the Air Force. He needed a job and had some delivery experience. As a teenager living in Baltimore, he delivered poultry to people's homes on a bicycle. His wife's father was a milkman and suggested that Thompson apply at Adohr Farms.

He went to bed at 8 p.m. so he was well rested for his 4:30 a.m. shift. His wife, Carole, said she woke up at 2 a.m. to make him eggs and bacon or hot cereal, and pack his lunch -- sandwiches, cold chicken or hard-boiled eggs in a metal tin.

"That's when metal lunch boxes were in," Carole Thompson said.

Every day, he'd dress in his uniform -- a white shirt, white pants and a black bow tie. He said the uniform was a little too formal for the early morning when everyone else was asleep.

Thompson left his home at 3 a.m. and stocked the delivery truck with crates of milk at a warehouse. He said people left notes inside the milk boxes on their porches a day or two before. He collected the notes so he would know how much milk, butter and ice cream to bring on his route.

Thompson said a crate held 24 quarts, and he usually brought 40 to 60 crates each day. He packed chipped ice on top of the wooden cases.

"Everywhere we went, there'd be water dripping out the back end," Thompson said.

He carried a notebook that had directions for his two routes, which alternated daily. After finishing between 10 and 11 a.m., he and two other milkmen would meet at the warehouse for coffee and discuss ways to attract more customers.

Thompson said delivery had become a luxury and that milk cost about 5 cents less in stores. Some people would leave notes saying they couldn't afford to pay.

"It was sad because people had children," he said.

By the '60s, milk delivery started to dwindle because of social, economic and industrial changes. After about a year, Thompson was laid off.

He said his time as a milkman taught him how to deal with customers and made him more sociable.

"He wasn't an outgoing type around strangers," Carole Thompson said. "That was really good for him."

Thompson said he enjoyed being outside in the fresh air while on his route and not having a boss watching over his shoulder.

"It was up to you to deliver the milk and take care of your customers," he said.

* * *

I not only remember the milkman, I still have the milk box sitting on my front porch, where it has sat for 50 years almost. It says "property of Green's all-star dairy food." It's red, blue and tin. -- Richard Bowman, 75,Spring Garden Township

* * *

Our milk dealer had a horse and wagon. He drove for Lauxmont Farms. I was about 9 years old. He would come through Wrightsville with his horse. When he got out of the wagon to deliver, the horse would stop, and then the horse would go to the next house and stop. It had steel wheels on, and about a year or so later they had to go to rubber wheels.

We'd ask him for a free sample, and once in a while, he'd give us half a pint of chocolate milk.

-- William Crumbling, 83,Yorkana

* * *

I definitely remember the milkman. He was wonderful, and I loved those glass bottles. My mom used to put the wire rack out every morning, and she would have one note in there telling him how much he should bring.

In the wintertime, it was so funny, the paper caps used to come off when it got so freezing. The milk would stick at the bottom of the paper caps on the ground. Sometimes, you'd bring the bottle in, and it would have three-fourths of cream in it. The cream was not supposed to be shook. One time I shook the bottle, and My daddy was very upset about that.

But it was so nice to have the milkman come to the house. The bread man and the iceman. We had a lot of company when we were little.

--Mary Elizabeth Lucabaugh,69, Springfield Township

* * *

We had a milkman who came to our house every single week. His name was Goody. He not only brought milk, but he brought butter, he brought popsicles. We just loved him. In the summertime -- I know he did this out of his pocket, but it made such an impression on us kids -- he would split popsicles and hand them out for free.

We had an insulated silver milk box that sat on our porch. When I was a kid, we still got milk in glass bottles where the cream rose to the top. Sometimes that milk box kept it so cold it would be a little icy when you first poured it out. -- Nancy Sterner, 54,West Manchester Township

* * *

When I was a child over 50 years ago, (that) was the beginning of our family inviting Roy from Rutter's dairy into our home. My father ran his own catering business, and it wasn't long before Roy became someone we all looked forward to seeing every day.

Dad would order half pints of milk, chocolate milk, orange drink, punch and, of course, ice cream Dixie Cups for his lunch truck. Us kids were up each morning to greet Roy, who became our best friend. After (he loaded) dad's truck up and (gave) mother her home order, we followed him to his truck, and he gave us a treat of our choice. As we grew up, Roy also gave our children the same privilege.

Kay Markel, 60, York

* * *

My grandpa, dad and uncle owned Meadow View Dairy in Adamsville. My dad was the milkman in Red Lion. In the summer, my brother and I would help him deliver milk. We would put it in the milk box on the porch. Some people preferred that we put it in the fridge in the house.

One time, my brother was going to put it in the house on West Broadway. He started to go in the front room, and there laid a man in a casket in the room. My brother dropped the six carrier of milk and ran for my dad.

Dad had a little black book and marked the weekly bill. Friday, about 3 p.m., he would go door to door and collect the bill for the milk. He also went to cigar factories to deliver milk and chocolate milk for their breakfast. He had milk, cream, cottage cheese and chocolate milk on the truck.

The dairy is long gone, but my memories of the dairy are wedged in my heart.

--Shirley Sheffer-Failor, 75,Spring Garden Township

When I was little, I would get up early in the morning in the wintertime and then, milk came in glass bottles with paper lids. I would go around (my neighborhood), not every day, just occasionally. And the cold would make the paper pop up. I would lick the cream off the top because then milk was not homogenized. I would go maybe four or five (houses), I would lick the cream off, put the top back on and go home.

When I was in my early 20s, married, the milkman came every day and he would leave us milk. When it would be getting close to paycheck time -- which was always on a Friday -- by then all of us in the neighborhood were usually broke. So we all had a running tab with the milkman. -- Dorothy Sullivan, 75, York

Did you know?

· Milk delivery to homes began in 1942.

· By 1973, 10 percent of Americans still received home milk delivery. By 1995, the milkman visited 1 percent of American homes.

· Milk was delivered in glass bottles until plastic containers were invented in 1964.

· Dairy cows provide more than 90 percent of the world's milk supply.

· It takes 10 pounds of milk to make a pound of cheese, 21 pounds of milk to make a pound of butter, and 12 pounds of milk to make a gallon of ice cream.

· Despite its creamy texture, milk is 85 percent to 95 percent water. The rest of its volume comes from vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and fat.

· Until the development of milking machines in 1894, farmers milked about six cows each hour. Today, the average dairy farmer milks more than 100 cows per hour.

· A single cow yields about 90 glasses of milk per day or about 200,000 glasses of milk per lifetime.